Wolf is a 1994 American horror film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Jim Harrison, Wesley Strick, and an uncredited Elaine May, with music by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno (The Stendhal Syndrome).
The film features Jack Nicholson (The Raven; The Terror; The Shining) and Michelle Pfeiffer in the lead roles, alongside James Spader (The Watcher; Alien Hunter), Kate Nelligan (Dracula – 1979; Thérèse Raquin - BBC TV; Fatal Instinct), Richard Jenkins, Christopher Plummer (The Pyx; Murder by Decree; Vampire in Venice) Eileen Atkins, David Hyde Pierce, and Om Puri.
Plot teaser:
Will Randall is bitten by a wolf while driving home through Vermont after it was seemingly hit by his car. Soon after, he is demoted from editor-in-chief of a publishing house during a takeover by ruthless tycoon Raymond Alden, who replaces him with Will’s ambitious protégé Stewart Swinton. Will begins experiencing physiological changes ranging from increased appetites and libido to hair regrowth and sharper-than-human sensory perceptions. Catching an unfamiliar scent on the clothing of his wife Charlotte, Will rushes over to Stewart’s house, bites Stewart during a brief physical altercation, and rushes upstairs to the bedroom where he finds evidence of Charlotte’s infidelity. Will leaves his wife, takes up residence at the Mayflower Hotel, and as the moon ripens, takes on increasingly bestial aggressive characteristics.
With the help of Alden’s rebellious daughter Laura, Will tries to adapt to his new existence. His first nocturnal escapade as a werewolf takes place at Laura’s guesthouse on the Alden estate where he partially transforms and hunts down a deer by moonlight. In the morning, Will finds himself on the bank of a stream, with blood all over his face and hands, and, fearing notice, hurriedly departs in his Volvo…
Reviews:
“Quite frankly, it’s hard to fathom why exactly anyone would have wanted to make this slick, glossy, but utterly redundant werewolf movie… Overall, this is needlessly polished nonsense: not awful; just toothless, gutless and bloodless … Nichols makes it clear that directing a horror movie was the last thing on his mind. Even make-up wiz Rick Baker is stymied by the air of restraint.” Time Out
“a decidedly upscale horror film, a tony werewolf movie in which a full roster of talents tries to mate with unavoidably hoary material. Offspring of this union is less ungainly than might have been feared, but is also less than entirely convincing, an intriguing thriller more enjoyable for its humor than for its scare quotient.” Todd McCarthy, Variety
“No one puts more wicked zest into playing yuppie scum than the gifted Spader – he’s a roguish delight… Nichols is a master of the telling detail, and his vision of the New York publishing world as an urban jungle is elegantly stylized and bitingly funny… Nicholson is amazing, finding humor and poignancy in a role that could have slid into caricature. His scenes with Pfeiffer, who gives a luminous performance, have a welcome edge, aided by some uncredited scripting from Nichols’ former comedy partner Elaine May… a rapturous romantic thriller with a darkly comic subtext about what kills human values.” Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
“In its own delightfully peculiar way, the film is the only one of its kind ever made – a horror film about office politics… The movie isn’t wholly great; it starts to unravel just after the midway point. Still, there are charms enough all the way through to make it the most seductive, most enjoyable film of the summer… The main attraction, though, is Nicholson – first, last and always – and it’s his modulated suavity and wit that make the film so sublimely entertaining… Though Randall becomes more formidable as the movie progresses, Nicholson sustains his low-key, self-effacing style, and somehow the more he keeps his natural dynamism in check, the more his charisma increases…” Hal Hinson, Washington Post
“The tone of the movie is steadfastly smart and literate; even in the midst of his transformation, the Nicholson character is capable of sardonic asides and a certain ironic detachment… What is a little amazing is that this movie allegedly cost $70 million. It is impossible to figure where the money all went, even given the no-doubt substantial above-the-line salaries. The special effects are efficient but not sensational, the makeup by Rick Baker is convincing but wisely limited, and the movie looks great, but that doesn’t cost a lot of money. What emerges is an effective attempt to place a werewolf story in an incongruous setting, with the closely observed details of that setting used to make the story seem more believable.” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Egyptian poster for Wolf
